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Mount Meager Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
Mount Meager facts for kids
Mount Meager is a potentially active volcano in the Canadian province of British Columbia, Canada, 150 kilometers north of Vancouver. The top of the mountain is mostly covered by snow and glaciers. It lies in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt and is the northernmost volcano of the Cascade Volcanic Arc that extends down to northern California. Its most common type of rock is lava that is almost a million years old (with a thickness in some places over 1 km).
The mountain is part of the Pacific Ranges of mountains and is 2,680 meters (8,793 feet) high. It was previously called Cathedral Mountain.
Geologic history
Meager is known for its last major eruption about 2,350 years ago. The strange thing about the eruption was the fact it released the debris from the northeast side of the volcano, as rock and ash blocked a major river called the Lillooet River. The river was dammed to a height of at least 100 meters, forming a lake. The lake reached a maximum elevation of 810 meters and was at least 50 meters deep. The breccia soon eroded from water activity within the lake, forming Keyhole Falls. There was a massive flood when the water first broke through the breccia, carrying small house sized blocks of breccia. During this eruption, ash was hurled into the air over 20 kilometers above sea level. The ash was carried eastward as far as Alberta.
Volcanic hazards
Meager is an unstable volcano. It is built of unstable volcanic and has dumped clay and rock several meters deep into the Perberton Valley at least three times during the last 7,300 years. Two earlier debris flows, around 4,450 and 7,300 years ago, sent rubble at least 32 kilometers from the volcano. Recently, the volcano has created smaller landslides about every ten years, including one in 1975 that killed four geologists near Meager Creek. Logging, mining, tourism and wilderness recreation on nearby slopes and valleys are vulnerable to the volcano’s excellent geomorphic activity. The possibility of Mount Meager covering settled parts of the Pemberton Valley in a debris flow is estimated at about one in 2400 years. There is no sign of volcanic eruptions with these events, however scientists warn the volcano could release another massive debris flow over populated areas anytime without warning.
The explosive nature of past eruptions at Mount Meager indicates that this volcano also poses a considerable long-distance treat to communities across southern British Columbia and Alberta. It is also a local treat to the town of Pemberton, British Columbia, about 50 km away. Another explosive eruption at Mount Meager would also have a considerable impact on local mining and logging operations, as well as significant negative impacts on the Lillooet River fishery.
Images for kids
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Area of the Cascadia subduction zone, with Mount Meager being the northernmost red triangle in the Cascade Volcanic Arc
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The glaciated northeastern flank of Plinth Peak. Also shown is the inconspicuous ice and debris-covered Bridge River Vent in the middle of the photo.
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The Mount Meager massif on February 11, 2006
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Diagrammatic representation of eruptive activity at Mount Meager in millions of years (Ma). Height of the histogram gives a very crude indication of the size of the event. The latest event about 2,400 years ago (shown in the histograph as the latest eruption) was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Eruptive events marked with question marks are those with uncertain idendity.
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A geologist next to a tree trunk that was buried by ash-fall deposits and then overrun by a pyroclastic flow from the Bridge River Vent eruption about 2,400 years ago
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A hot spring near Meager Creek related to volcanism at Mount Meager
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This pyroclastic flow deposit forms the foreground canyon wall on the Lillooet River. It was erupted from the Bridge River Vent on the northeastern flank of Plinth Peak.
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These river valleys are filled with debris from the 2010 landslide of Mount Meager. Photo A is the collapsed debris dam near the intersection of Capricorn Creek and Meager Creek. Photo B is the debris flow at the junction of Meager Creek and the Lillooet River.